


To the edge I'll race you

by velvetmornings



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Rewrite, Everybody Lives, Fix-It, Happy Ending, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-21
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2019-11-26 21:11:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18185774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/velvetmornings/pseuds/velvetmornings
Summary: A collection of Shiro/Keith (Sheith) scenes in my version of season 8.Keith takes a breath, his chest noticeably rising and falling with the motion.“Nothing, just waiting for Shiro.” The words shouldn’t carry as much weight as they do when Keith says them. He hopes Lance doesn’t notice.





	1. Episode 1. Launch Date

**Author's Note:**

> The title is a lyric from the song Pretty Sweet by Frank Ocean.

The surface of the Black Lion is warm from the heat of the setting sun. Kosmo trips and shifts to accommodate, head resting on the cool part of the lion untouched by the heat in Keith’s shadow. The desert air is dry and stiff and the wind does it no favors.

This is how Keith will leave Earth. With the memory of sand skimming his lips he can taste it. And his nerves electric with anticipation that isn’t from the impending war.

Lance disrupts the silence.

Keith hears him before he sees him, his outfit clanking and stuttering as he makes his approach.

“Why are you such a hard man to find?” Lance gives it a moment, as if he’s expecting an answer. Keith only bothers to look confused at his outfit. “Nevermind. Listen, I have a date with Allura.”

“A what with _who_?” Keith asks, nearly choking on his own spit. Lance grins. Keith heard him and he knows. “W-wow. Congratulations, Lance. That’s great.”

“Don’t know if it’ll last long, though. These Altean customs are already starting to confuse me,” he responds, gesturing down at himself and settling down on the lion’s surface.

Keith laughs, “I’m sure you’ll be fine. You guys are the paladins of Voltron. What’s a small, little Earth date?”

“Holy heck, you’re so right! I was so worried about Altean customs I didn’t think about if Allura knows _Earth_ dating customs!” Lance gets a crazed look in his eye, the one he gets when he’s spiraling. Keith knows it all too well by now. “What if she doesn’t know there’s usually a kiss? Or that there’s _talking_ involved, _oh my god what’re we going to talk about_ —“

“Lance!” Keith intercepts. When Lance stops and finally makes eye contact with him again, he continues, “You’re going to be fine. She knows you. You know her. Just be yourself and the rest will fall into place.”

“Thanks, Keith. I—“ Lance responds. But before that thought even settles, Keith is already tripping over himself to continue.

“—I mean, if she agreed in the first place it’s because she likes you. God knows why. Annoying, stupid, Earth version of you—“

“Hey!” Lance yells. He pushes Keith’s shoulder till he skids on the lion’s surface, making Kosmo yelp. Keith laughs as he slams a hand down to avoid sliding further.

“I’m just joking!” He manages, somewhere between laughs.

The dust Keith disrupted settles back on Black’s hood as they calm down in silence.

The sun dips further and Keith silently wonders if Shiro forgot they were supposed to meet. Before that thought has a chance to manifest to outright fear, Lance speaks up again.

“So, what are _you_ going to do?” Lance asks, nudging him in the shoulder teasingly. A faint cry from the previous shove.

Keith takes a breath, his chest noticeably rising and falling with the motion.

“Nothing, just waiting for Shiro.” The words shouldn’t carry as much weight as they do when Keith says them. He hopes Lance doesn’t notice.

“Okay. Well, _I_ have to prepare,” he starts to get up, his ridiculous outfit clanking as he stands. “See you later, Keith.”

“Yeah,” Keith replies, and then a moment later, “Good luck on your date!” Keith yells, once Lance is a good distance away.

Lance laughs and responds, “Yeah, thanks! Good luck on yours.”

Keith can’t help but smile at that.

-

“You’re leaving?” Veronica asks Shiro. Her brown eyes wide, as she takes off her glasses and wipes them on her uniform.

The hologram board has dimmed to near darkness, the only light left in the room. It leaves the conference room in a dim glow.

“Yeah,” he responds. They were alone. The rest of the crew and MFE’s had already filtered out, eager to be with their families.

“Say hi to Keith for me,” she says, placing her glasses back on her face and smiles till her teeth show. Shiro lets out a breath that nears a laugh at the last moment. Of course she would know where he was going.

“Will do,” Shiro responds. “Have a nice time with your family, Veronica.”

“Thanks, Cap,” Veronica remarks. Shiro’s smile half-drops at the nickname, mostly from surprise. She pats him once on his bicep as she steps out the door, teasingly. “Just testing it out.”

Sometimes Shiro thought he had her pinned. Lance’s sibling after all, they couldn’t be so different. Although they certainly share humor as a defense mechanism, that’s where their similarities stopped.

Calling Shiro “Cap” was stupid and irrelevant and definitely something he wouldn’t think twice about coming from Lance. But Veronica was another matter.

It struck a chord in him. Maybe he wasn’t losing his whole “Defender of the Universe” groove after all. Maybe he was still able to make viable connections with the people on his team, striking intrigue and inspiration in future leaders.

He wasn’t a paladin anymore but maybe it still mattered.

“Hey, Veronica?”

“Sir?”

“‘Cap’ is fine.”

-

Watching the sunset from the hood of Black makes Keith think back to a similar moment in time when he was here and everything else seemed lost. He was much closer to solid ground then, letting the soles of his sneakers scuff the sand from the edges of his hoverbike. And it wasn’t _the_ world being taken away from him, but _his_ world all the same: Shiro.

_“Shiro is the best pilot in this god-forsaken place and you know it.” Keith had said to Iverson, hissing air through his teeth to keep the tears at bay._

_Iverson had stayed perfectly still in the chaos, as littles bits of trinkets and things were shattered and thrown around him. Keith had vandalized Iverson’s faculty office in his rage, crushing anything that seemed precious. Trying to make him understand._

_“Keith, I know you’re hurting. But believe it or not,” Iverson said, attempting to keep his voice steady as another piece of glass flied and shattered behind him. His flinch gave him away. “Shirogane was human just like everyone else. And humans make mistakes.”_

_The word “hurting” didn’t feel like it encompassed the wretchedness of this so-called emotion called grief. It stopped Keith from throwing a picture frame at the nearest wall, letting it drop instead to his feet._

_Keith kicked the remnants of what looks like an important accolade from in front of Iverson to approach him for his next words._

_“Not_ was _. Is. Present tense. Because he’s alive and I’m going to find him.”_

“I cried, you know.” Keith says now, his knuckles rapping against the head of the lion. He felt a little braver. Sure Shiro knew Keith got kicked out of the Garrison, but he didn’t know the extent of it. The extent of his hurt even before Shiro’s death.

“What?”

“Yeah. I came here after the Kerberos launch and just cried. I was devastated.” Shiro licks his lips but doesn’t look surprised—or at least, doesn’t show it. But Keith knows him well enough that he knows he deliberates his next words carefully.

“Well I’m here now, Keith. And we’re in this together this time.” He puts his hand on his shoulder like he always does. But he leans into it this time, his chest pressing into Keith’s shoulder blade.

“Shiro?”

“Yes _,_ Keith?” Shiro asks, like he’s egging him on. Like he was expecting this.

“Do you remember anything from... our fight?” Keith asks, he reaches up to his scar on reflex. Like stroking it with his thumb will alight something in him if he tried. Shiro lets go of Keith’s shoulder. He tries not to take that to heart, but the pang in his chest thrums all the same.

“Bits and pieces. But I remember... enough.”

“ _Enough_ ,” Keith repeats. A question, an answer, he doesn’t know. He’s stalling, obviously, in asking the very specific thing he’s trying to ask.

“I love you too, Keith,” Shiro says. He looks at him expectantly, his eyebrow raise small but unmistakable at this distance. His familiar weight presses back against Keith’s shoulder blade, his Altean arm resting on its usual place on his shoulder. And a breath away from Keith’s neck.

Metaphorically though, it feels like a weight was lifted off of Keith’s shoulders and dropped on him all at once. Delighted and relieved and something else he can’t place. He lets out a sigh.

“Thank you,” Keith replies, and then realizes just how pathetic that sounds. “...for assuring me, I mean. But I also don’t want you to feel like you should say it because you _need_ to, or have to.”

He regrets speaking but he knows it’s a waste. He gives himself away with every breath and sigh he releases without realizing. He’s an openbook for Shiro’s eyes only, and he already knows it.

“I’m here now, aren’t I?” Shiro says. His statement from the conference room echoes in Keith’s mind: _Be with the ones you love_. “It’s not assurance, Keith. It’s the truth.”

“Alright then,” Keith manages, a smile overcoming his face.

They bump knees and Keith looks out to the sunset again, watching as the sun makes its final descent past the horizon. It’s a troubling thought, that this could really be the last time he gets to see it. But with his head on Shiro’s shoulder it seems a little less unbearable.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you've gotten this far, thanks so much for reading!  
> Let me know what you think! Kudos, comment, etc. I appreciate any little thing.  
> My sheith tumblr & twitter are both: kittygane. Feel free to follow me there if you'd like. Much love x.


	2. Episode 2. The Grudge

“Who do you care about enough? Who’s the equivalent?” Zethrid taunts. Saliva flings from her lips as she talks. She has been reduced to nothing but an avenging angel, and she won’t stop till she sees blood. The gun swings between Veronica, Acxa, and Shiro. Keith’s teeth clench and the ghost of his canines threaten to break the skin of his lips.

It’s a moment of weakness. It’s a small thing, subliminal even, in any other moment—but it’s hard to get anything past someone that has you in a death grip, every piece of skin of Keith’s back pressed against Zethrid’s front:

But Keith makes a noise on his exhale when the gun swings toward Shiro.

It’s equivalent to the noise someone makes when the tip of their pencil breaks, but it’s enough.

“Bingo,” Zethrid says, lowly. Keith clenches his eyes shut and claws on the vice around his neck, finally fighting for his life even if only to fight for Shiro’s.

Shiro speaks for the first time since he’s touched ground.

“You don’t have to do this, Zethrid. Revenge isn’t justice. This won’t bring Ezor back.” Shiro takes a tentative step forward, his hands raised in a mock surrender, making his gun clatter to the floor. But Keith knows a weapon is practically useless in Shiro’s hands. He’s dangerous all on his own.

“It doesn’t matter now. Nothing does,” Zethrid’s grip tilts at her words, like the gun wilts as her mood does. “I would at least have avenged her. An eye for an eye.”

“Zethrid, it’s over,” Acxa states, calm as a breeze.

“Not yet.” There’s a wheeze like you’d imagine a lightbulb would make before it’s about to break. Keith’s eyes have devolved to a blur of colors and light. Shiro is only a speck of white in the darkness. His starlight.

Keith doesn’t hear the bang but he knows the result. It causes him to fling backward off the cliff.

Air is finally able to travel freely down his throat, but it’s now also the only thing between him and the lava below.

He’s free-falling.

A human flesh arm grabs him from the nothingness, making Keith a titillating pendulum on the cliff’s edge, ticking off until he drops.

Suddenly Keith is reminded of a very similar moment, (Weeks, maybe months back, he can’t tell. Time seems to collapse and fold in on itself lately) when the only thing holding him between life and death was his blade and his hand, Shiro hanging unconscious below him.

And he looks up to see Shiro’s grey eyes filling with tears above him, this time.

And it’s so soft and so subtle that Keith barely hears it from the roaring of the lava below, but it’s there: “It’s my turn.”

He yanks forward and suddenly Keith is in his arms.

Slick skin and cloth sliding against each other as a robotic arm comes to rest on Keith’s back and _pulls._ Shiro and Keith are sprawled on the igneous rock, clutching and desperate because their lives were spared. Equal parts alive, grateful, and breathless.

Keith wraps his arms around Shiro’s neck, burrowing his face in the space between Shiro’s collarbone and the hollow of his throat.

Veronica clears her throat from above them.

“Zethrid’s safe, Acxa caught her.” Veronica says, then she gives them a once-over but not disapprovingly. “You two get back on the Atlas soon. The air’s toxic.”

Veronica pivots and leaves. Keith warily registers that she gestures to Acxa to leave as well, with a two-finger come-hither that’s seems inappropriate.

“What happened?” Keith rasps, the lack of adrenaline now making his body slink forward. He’s suddenly reminded him that he’s human, even if only partially. The carbon dioxide is beginning to take its toll.

Shiro rises from where they lay but he doesn’t let go of Keith. His mechanical arm lifts Keith’s legs, making his knees buckle, while his flesh arm supports his back in a way that Keith’s human upbringing would only describe as bridal style _._

“Veronica shot Zethrid. We went in with a plan when I realized it wasn’t you over the intercom.”

“What gave me away?” Keith asks, drunkenly and smirking as his cheek bounces against Shiro’s chest as he makes his way toward the Atlas.

“The speech pattern was all wrong. But also,” Keith can hear Shiro’s smile before he sees it, “You complimented Lance.”

“Ha.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you've gotten this far, thanks so much for reading!  
> Kudos, comment, etc. I'd love to hear your thoughts.  
> My sheith tumblr & twitter are both: kittygane. Follow me there if you'd like. Much love x.


	3. Finale. The Rising Sun

“You had a plan and let Veronica take the brunt of the work.” Keith says, after the adrenaline wears off. After the bitterness sets in and stays there. He hasn’t even bothered to shower yet, the sweat clinging to his spacesuit rivaling the saltiness threatening to spill over his cheeks. 

As much as it hurts to admit, there’s a part of Keith that always knew he’d always love Shiro more than he’d ever love Keith. Balance of the universe, he supposes. 

Shiro is angry. Face reddening with emotion as he swipes his hand across his face. 

“I would’ve taken her with my bare hands if I had to, Keith. If it meant you wouldn’t get hurt,” Shiro spits through clenched teeth. Keith takes that as a sign that he’s lying. 

“But you didn’t!” Keith knows it’s selfish really, expecting Shiro to show up guns blazing to save him. But it’s how Keith loves, it burns through him till his lungs ache and it makes every other rational thought secondary in his mind if it means Shiro’s safety. “I know I’m impulsive Shiro, but I’ve never  _ once _ made you doubt my feelings for you.”

“And what won’t make you doubt mine?” Shiro lurches so close it makes Keith stumble and sidestep into the wall behind him. He’s not used to being caught off guard, and especially not by Shiro. It makes his sob lodge in his throat like a corkscrew and stay there. 

Something in the hologram board clicks and hums and they’re propelled into total darkness. 

Darkness used to mean scary things as kids. Monsters and magic and unknown things waiting to reveal itself from the space where your eyesight failed you. 

But darkness can also prove to offer just the inkling of bravery necessary it takes for Shiro to close the space between them, their mouths meeting in urgency. 

At first it’s a clash of teeth and noses, but then it turns into something softer, kinder. And proving that whatever  _ this _ was, it was more than either of them thought. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you've gotten this far, thanks so much for reading!  
> This is the final chapter.  
> I'd appreciate any kudos, comments, or kind words you can spare. All the love x.


End file.
